I’ve never done a cruise before without family and this time I was joined by my good friend Ethan!
About a week before the trip I was super sick with a double ear infection. You generally shouldn’t fly with fluid in your ears since you risk rupturing them. I let Ethan know and I really hoped he wouldn’t be too frustrated with a wildcard thrown into the trip plan. Once a plan is complete and everything is paid for it’s really tough for me to cancel. I’ve only done that once. Plan B was the sort of insane plan of driving to Miami from Boston instead of flying. It would’ve been vastly more expensive and probably would’ve wiped me out mentally.
I went to the doctor and got medication that helped, but I’d totally not recommend flying while congested. It was a bit miserable. The trip was awesome though!
Day 0, Arriving In Miami
I have this day as day 0 because it’s a travel day and not really a cruise ship day.
I got to the airport early thanks to Mom. Getting to the gate was a breeze. I always like to hit the Dunkin’ line before I fly out of Boston. I got to text Ethan while waiting for the boarding process, which was refreshing. Usually when I get to the airport at 5am there is no one to talk to haha. I can keep myself amused, but a real person is always better.
The first flight was fast! It was only one hour and five minutes to Baltimore. During the planning process I focused more on the cost of my ticket ($60 to Miami) rather than scrutinize the connection time (15 minutes) so I was a bit worried the day before travel. Luckily I got to Baltimore 30 minutes early! So that meant I could saunter to my next gate instead of sprint.
Ethan, on the other hand was so excited to fly that he switched his flight to an earlier time. He would be working at the airport since he didn’t really take the day off. That was probably a bundle of joy for him. [Ethan’s Note: Raleigh was supposed to be hit with a major snowstorm that afternoon. They cancelled all evening flights (including my original flight), so I was lucky to leave the area when I did!]
Landing at Baltimore was a little painful for me. I just got over a double ear infection and while I was feeling better, the congestion wasn’t yet 100% gone. So upon the descent my right ear equalized and my left did not. Would not recommend. I used Earplanes (earplugs for the plane) on flight 2. That meant no music / silent movies! (But I hoped to potentially enjoy my hearing upon reaching Miami).
The flight went well, but my left ear still had some problems. I was a bit worried for the return flight, but I pushed that thought out of my mind until later. Once in Miami I met up with Ethan and we ventured to the hotel. I didn’t now it at first, but we had to call the hotel to get the shuttle. The driver was super nice!
I thought it would be neat to go to South Beach and walk around. We had lunch at Call Me Cuban. I got a Cuban Sandwich and Ethan got ropa veja with rice and beans with a side of plantains. I also got a side of quesadillas. We both had small servings of mojitos as well.
After lunch we walked around for a while. We went all the way down to the far end of Ocean Boulevard and then walked onto a pier that Ethan discovered on Google Maps. I was skeptical of the location since we seemed a bit out of place, but walking on the pier and seeing the different ships and the magnificent beachfront was really fun. [Ethan’s Note: We actually saw The Norwegian Pearl leaving Miami while we were there!]
Around 3:40pm we decided to go back to the hotel. There wasn’t a lot to do on South Beach, but there also wasn’t much to do near the hotel. At 4pm our Uber arrived and the harrowing adventure began.
What should’ve been about an hour trip back turned into a 4 hour trip when the Miami Beach police decided to close the on-ramp to I-195 with cars still on the ramp. Soooooo we sat there and waited…. For about 1 hour 30 minutes we just sat in the car and didn’t move. Eventually a police motorcade went by, but not much else changed.The uber driver was as perplexed as we were as to what to do. I’ve NEVER been in an uber for that long. The uber driver eventually made the decision to do a U-turn on the on ramp and go down a different highway. Fast forward an hour and we were back at the hotel. [Ethan’s Note: The driver didn’t speak English, neither of us spoke Spanish, so we would use hand gestures and the Translate app to communicate while we waited. It was supposed to be a $70 Uber, but when I saw my email the next morning, they’d “adjusted” the fees to make it a $250 trip!! Immediately contacted Uber support and the “glitch” in their system was “resolved.”]
Other than my slightly painful left ear and the 4 hour Uber, day 0 was great!
Day 1, Boarding the Cruise
We woke up around 8am and had a lackluster hotel breakfast before starting the day. I thought when planning the trip (at home) that a 10:30-11am boarding time looked great! Unfortunately for us there is not much happening near the airport Marriott. Ethan got to do his daily German lesson and I played my daily sudoku puzzle.
Ethan has never been on a cruise before so this was a pretty exciting experience. He initially wanted to arrive on the day of the cruise, but after I stressed that that was a terrible idea he changed his mind. Since I went on the Norwegian Prima before, I was expecting the same ship experience, but Ethan was just in awe of the idea of a massive ship. It was fun to watch.
We took an uber to the dock, which took about 25 minutes. The on-boarding process was pretty smooth and by all accounts we were on the ship rather quickly. (Although there was a rather annoying delay). Once onboard we took the mandatory safety muster drill briefing. That’s where we learn where to go in an emergency. Hope that doesn’t happen. Heh
After the muster Ethan and I walked all around the ship. I generally preferred to take a more leisurely stroll, but Ethan is an Olympic level walker and tended to move quickly. He was also huge fan of the stairs.
We took a somewhat worthless ship tour somewhat early in the afternoon. It did point out some locations I likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I thought it would bring us behind the scenes, but that was clearly a misunderstanding on my part.
We ate at the Irish pub for a late lunch snack! I thought the fish and chips tasted great although the portion size was small. The menu size was pretty small, but the food tasted good so that’s what counts.
We went to the opening ceremony at 4pm and that was pretty great. It was outside on the top deck next to the pool. There were a fair amount of people there, but it was by no means a full house. The staff seemed pretty flamboyant. I think I could likely dance along with 1000 people if the need did arise. However, since we were on the balcony we sadly seemed to be too far away to join in the dancing.
Ethan pressed me to go to the art auction so we will definitely be doing that when the time comes. I vaguely remembered the one on the Prima and it seemed kinda cool. I definitely couldn’t afford any of the art though. We guessed on the price of a sample artwork that was being showcased. If you guess the exact price you win the art. The price was somewhere between $10k – $100k. I thought it would be neat to have a 100k painting of a glass of red wine in my house.
Somewhere in the day we went to our stateroom. We opted to go balconyless and it really wasn’t that bad. The window was a lot bigger than I expected and the beds were small twin beds. I was a bit worried that I’d be too tall, but that also didn’t seem to be a problem. [Ethan’s Note: The room size was pretty decent. I was expecting it to be smaller, but we both had space to ourselves in the room, and we didn’t spend much time there anyways.]
We also visited the shore excursion desk where Ethan found out about how not-cheap renting snorkeling gear is. The only reason I already have a snorkeling mask is because I have awful eyesight and I need glasses underwater to see. I looooove snorkeling!! It was so much fun last time and I simply couldn’t wait to try it again.
We got to Deal or No Deal early about 40 minutes early. In the Star Dust theater we could really feel the ship sway. It was a bit relaxing. I drank a raspberry martini and it was a bit too fruity for me.
I kept trying to tell myself the cost of the Deal or No Deal cards was justified, but I really don’t think it was. I’d say the entertainment was a bit mediocre. Not really how I remembered it from the Norwegian Prima. The first contestant was a guy named Jade and he won $20. Mostly because he opened all the cases and didn’t take any of the bankers deals. The 2nd person was some girl who was part of a bachelorette party. She won $165 since she decided to take the bankers deals early. The energy of the crowd didn’t really match the game host (cruise ship entertainment director). That made for a very amusing game.
Right after the game we went to go have dinner. Ethan wanted to go to Alizar and I was cool with basically anything. The food was pretty good! I got a Caesar salad, steak with french fries, and a creme brûlée. Ethan got a steak and fries and a coffee for desert. We both got a glass of red wine. [Ethan’s Note: This is when I began to realize that the cruise kitchen staff realized that the easiest thing to serve me was filet mignon with a random side. I wasn’t complaining!]
After dinner I opted to take a break in the room. Mostly to just recharge my social batteries and catch up on the blog. Ethan went off to read somewhere on the ship. The boat kept on rocking away. [Ethan’s Note: I wandered up to the top deck and found a quiet spot where I could watch us sail into the night and read without the wind chilling me.]
At 8:45pm we went to see the great Pablo Casova! He is an illusionist and won a magic competition in Spain at age 12. He is kind of a big deal in Europe. I’m very skeptical about magic so most of the show was me going “hmmm interesting”. I wasn’t really a fan of the silent magic tricks with a music background. That was a bit strange I thought. For example: “The Rope Trick” was a waste of time in my opinion. I did really like the last trick. Like there was just something I was missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Pablo did have quite a few amusing jokes though and his personal charm was epic. [Ethan’s Note: I haven’t seen many magic shows, but good lord was it hokey. None of the tricks left me amazed. It all felt like pretty basic stuff you could learn in the Magic For Dummies book. But it was a fun way to spend a hour on the ship!]
Day 2, Rough Seas
Today I got up at 7am and we went to the Spinnaker Lounge on deck 13 to get tender boat tickets. That was easy peasy since we were some of the only people there. I was super excited to go snorkeling and so getting to the tender line first was a priority for me.
After getting our tickets we went to the buffet to have breakfast! I got eggs, bacon, and hash browns. The eggs were better than the Marriott eggs for sure. After breakfast Ethan wanted to get a coffee from the onsite Starbucks (called Java Coffee). We swiftly turned around once we discovered the coffee wasn’t covered under our drink pass. [Ethan’s Note: The ship coffee was good enough for me. My goal was to pay as little as possible on the cruise since I’d already paid for everything up front.]
As we walked back to the room to get our beach supplies an announcement from the captain came over the intercom: “unfortunately due to unsafe wave conditions the tender boats cannot transfer guests to the island so we will have another day at sea.” Truly a tragic thing for everyone to hear. I was very much looking forward to this day. Boooooo! Sadly, not even the captain can calm the ocean for us.
Eventually I decided to venture to deck 12 to play some sudoku on the windy top deck! It’s not everyday I can play games on my phone with an ocean breeze whistling through my hair lol.
At some point Ethan texted me and wanted to meet up so I met him in the Bliss Lounge for a riveting sudoku challenge. I wouldn’t call myself an expert by any means, but in the app I’m pretty good so it was a bit of a surprise to see how awful I was doing at the challenge. After sudoku was a general trivia match. Ethan was slightly better than me at this. If only the cruise had picked Lord of The Rings or National Park trivia. Maybe I’d have a better shot at winning.
We dipped after trivia to do something else. The next activity was charades and that simply didn’t sound adventurous enough. Fruit carving was happening just in front of the Java Coffee so we went there next. It very much seemed like a last minute decision and that made watching kind of boring. The chefs did a good job with the carvings, it was just a bit stale in the entertainment department. [Ethan’s Note: It really felt like they just picked two people and told them to attempt to carve fruit for entertainment. They did a solid job, but the stage presence wasn’t there.]
After the chefs finished their first carving we left to check out the gift store. It’s sort of part gift store / part luxury hideout. On one side was t-shirts, key chains, mugs, and hats. The other side was very expensive jewelry, duty free alcohol, duty free cigarettes, and watches. Ethan was initially interested in the watches, but after hearing the price range was $2k – 10k he was a bit less interested. [Ethan’s Note: a LOT less interested, ha!]
We decided to go back to the room for a bit. On the way we passed by the fruit carving again and saw that progress had been made! I think it was neat to check out the gift shop just so see it. At least I got a keychain for the souvenir drawer back home.
I went to beer trivia next! Basically the way it worked was the host would put a picture of a beer bottle on the screen and the crowd would try to guess where it came from. It was hard because I really don’t drink much and if anything I only have corona. I got about 7/20 right.
Ethan joined mid beer game and at the end of that we decided to go try the Wheel of Fortune game. It was very much like Deal or No Deal in the sense that I’d be spending money with not much of a return. So that was a bit of a turn off. (For me it was like sitting in front of a slot machine and not being able to play it.)
We bailed on that before it started and decided to get some lunch. One of the main dining rooms on the ship was called Great Pacific and that’s where we planned to have lunch, but the menu there looked a little risky for someone with allergies, so instead, we went to the buffet where Ethan had the best carved chicken of his life. I had a plate of carbs! [Ethan’s Note: “best” is sarcastic here. It was DRY as hell. But the staff were helpful navigating the buffet with my allergies, so I’m not mad.]
After lunch we both got another cocktail from the pool deck and then went to the Spinnaker Lounge to chill. The Spinnaker is great for this because it’s sort of like a library with alcohol. The windows overlook the ocean and occasionally ships went by. After the cocktail I had a bourbon and watched the 55 sec game. Basically 60 seconds to win was under a copyright so NCL had to make up their own version. Between the host saying some suuuper suspiciously adult things and everyone else cheering on the people it was a highly fun experience for Ethan and I.
Alright so after that we went for a snack at O’Sheehans then back to the cabin for a quick nap. Around 5pm it was time for the art action! Unfortunately it looked like Ethan was succumbing to sea sickness (maybe) so I ventured off alone to deck 7 for the auction. Bad news: it was sold out. (Technically it was free, but there were no seats left.) Not really sure what to do I decided to hit guest services desk next to see what the airport shuttle options were. Then I got anther frozen margarita and headed back to the room.
It was a pretty good time to catch up on the blog so I did that then just relaxed until it was time to go to dinner.
For dinner we went to Cagney’s! It is a steak restaurant and had lots of really nice wine as well. I got a 16oz ny strip steak and Ethan got a 8oz mignon. Dinner was lovely and for desert I got an mini apple pie. Ethan got a glass of port for desert. It’s like the chocolate syrup of the wine world. After dinner it was about time to go to the prime entertainment of the night: Blazing Boots!
So this show is basically just an hour of performers singing to classic country songs. I thought that most of the singing was done pretty well and the dancing was pretty on point. However, it was no Broadway production so keep that in mind. Sadly I wasn’t able to take pictures because of copyright law. (That seems to be a frequent problem on NCL haha.)
Day 3, Snorkeling With Sharks!
Day 3 started out with me waking up, getting my swimsuit on and going with Ethan to get our beach towels. I would be swimming with sharks!
Getting off the boat was easy. All we needed were our ship card and drivers licenses. Ethan went to Ship Zone 2 and I went to Ship Zone 1. After that I didn’t see Ethan until I got back on the ship. I was in line next to the ship until about 9am and then we were marched over to a waiting tender to be taken to a nearby island.
Blue Lagoon is where I went. On the way we had a brief tour of the shore: “…and here is Micheal Jordan’s house, and Oprah’s house, oh and there is the Atlantis Casino.” It was pretty neat! It took about 30 minutes to reach the island and once I was there I had about an hour to myself before the excursion so I went and got a margarita.
I’ve got to say that that one was a lot tastier than the ones on the ship. I sat in a beach chair for a bit and relaxed.
I didn’t want to spend all my time sitting though, so next I went to the dolphin area and saw the dolphins. As well as going to the gift store to get a souvenir for the souvenir drawer at home. Most of the stuff on sale was pretty basic touristy stuff. As I always say: “The best things to buy are in the glass cases.” Pretty soon it was time to meet up for our excursion so I headed back over to the bar to wait for the guide.
The walk over to that lagoon took about 10 minutes and let me tell you the water shoes are not meant for concrete. My feet were suffering throughout. I was under the impression that I’d be dropped off the coast next to a reef and so the water shoes would be great for the ship to reef transport, but noooooo my excursion was within walking distance of the beach the whole time. The water shoes were still better than tennis shoes and I bet Ethan suffered greatly knowing that I had these epic shoes and he didn’t.
So I had done a fair amount of reading online, but nothing really prepared me to actually be in the water with sharks next to me. It was exhilarating! The guide said they might bump me out of curiosity and that I should just let it happen, so I just floated in the water snapping away pictures.
See, I had bought an epic underwater camera before the cruise and finally I had a chance to try it out. I got a bright red Olympus TG-7 camera. Built to survive anything. It was sort of difficult to see what I was taking pictures of because we were in such shallow water and the glare was rather intense, but I think the shots I got turned out pretty well.
-As I write this the ship is swaying back and forth. It’s a bit annoying to not have a stable writing desk, but I just have to make due with what I have.-
After a decent amount of time to myself it was time to pet the sharks! The guide called everyone out of the water. I took my snorkel mask off and set my camera down then went back into the water with my glasses back on. The guide called the sharks over with some fish. It turns out the sharks all have their own names and personalities. That is something I didn’t think was possible.
I stretched out my hands and felt the skin of one of the sharks. It was sort of a soft / squishy leather-like feeling. A bit different than I expected. The sharks liked the attention and were quite peaceful. It was really fun to have their fins / tails brush my legs.
I also had a chance to hold them! That was unexpected and while the pictures were expensive, they are worth it! Rolling over the sharks was a bit nerve racking, but on the third try I did it. They aren’t heavy per-say since they are more floating in the water. Overall it was the best excursion ever. (the ATV one from the Norwegian Prima is 2nd now).
After I got to play with the sharks, I had some more time to take pictures. Now that I had a solid handle on keeping my mask un-fogged, I had an easier time taking pictures.
The shark excursion was really the only thing I had planned so when it was over I didn’t really know what to do. I had about 1.5 hours to myself so I decided to get some lunch. Luckily my Mastercard was ok with me buying quesadillas outside of the US.
I got another margarita and sat around waiting for the tender back to the cruise ship. The ride back was a bit more festive as music like the Cha Cha Slide and Footloose were played. Apparently Ethan’s boat had a more club-like atmosphere on board.
Rather than dropping me on the pier in front of the cruise ships, my tender docked right on the main street in town. That way all of us boat-goers would be forced to navigate through all the tourist shops and such. I only stopped to pick up some postcards for penpals.
[Ethan’s Excursion: My excursion wasn’t quite as luxurious – no private islands or anything! There were ~40 of us going snorkeling, including a few families and a bachelorette party. Before going down to the boat that would take us to the reef, the guide had us all sign an additional waiver since the wind would make the boat ride rougher than normal. Several people backed out then, which I almost did as well. I don’t know if I get seasick a lot, but since I’d just gotten over it from being on the ship last night, I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk it again. But I did, and it was worth it! We boarded a small catamaran with 2 tables, a few curved benches, and some netting in the front of the ship stretched over the water connecting the two sides of the catamaran. Since I was one of the last people to board, I got stuck sitting on the edge of the netting. There was no sun at this point, and the wind was intense – especially as we made our way out to the reef. Once we arrived, we pulled up next to another boat taking another group of cruise ship travelers snorkeling. They gave us our snorkel and a life vest we could inflate/deflate to sink into the water if we wanted to see the reefs. I took a ladder down into the water, and it was COLD. Not ice cold, but I don’t handle cold pool temps well. But I pushed myself to spend time in the water and see the reefs and fish. I swam through a school of small tropical fish and saw the brightly colored reefs maybe 10 feet below. After about 30 minutes, I got out and warmed up with my towel. Once everyone was out, we started sailing back to the harbor. They cranked up the 2000’s pop hits and started serving rum punch to anyone who wanted it. It was a great time overall!]
I got back to the ship around 3pm and I met Ethan waiting inside the cabin for me. (Technically he was reading and not really waiting specifically for me). It was nice to freshen up with a shower and wash the salt water off of all my gear. My camera comes with WiFi and Bluetooth so I was able to download the pictures as soon as I took them. Pretty helpful if you ask me.
After a bit in the cabin, Ethan and I rushed to deck 7 to cheer at 2 people who almost missed the boat. Haha! I’d hate to be one of them.
Next we went to the sake bar! I’ve never tried sake so it was a first for me. Ethan is more of an expert so he schooled me on the proper technique and history. The sake I got tasted kind of like a mild wine. Sort of watery as well. After taking for a bit we headed back to the room to prepare for dinner. [Ethan’s Note: I enjoy junmai sake, and the distiller they stocked was one I was familiar with – it was excellent!]
Dinner was at Moderno, which is a modern Brazilian steakhouse. I went to a Brazilian steakhouse in 2017 in Colorado so I sort of knew what to expect, but it was Ethan’s first time. First we got our salads buffet style then while seated our wait brought us our drinks and then the fun began.
Eating here there was more unique than a normal buffet. See you have these cards that are red on one side and green on the other. A red card means the servers leave you alone (except for drinks) and a green side means endless meat. Yes you heard that right, servers with skewers of meat come endlessly to your table until you flip the card back to red. It was fantastic!
Ethan thought it was an interesting concept and we both tried at least 80% of the offerings. There was parmesan crusted chicken, sirloin steak, flank steak, sausage, cinnamon crusted grilled pineapple, and lamb to name a few. It was hard to say “no” to things. [Ethan’s Note: It was easier for me to say no to things with my allergies ha! All the steak was delicious, but I wanted more of the black beans and yucca fries. They were stingy with those sides!]
After dinner Ethan and I were so tired we just went to the room to retire for the night. I guess swimming in the ocean was a lot of work after all!
Day 4, Exploring The Airport
The final day of the cruise was much like the first day except with no activities or cocktails. At 7am ish I took a shower and packed up the rest of my things. Ethan was faster than me so he had the pleasure of listening to the catchy music from the NCL tv channel.
The disembarking process was easy. It took about 15 minutes for us to get off the ship. I was pro taxi which was likely more expensive / quicker, but Ethan insisted on an Uber. The journey to the airport was much smoother than the south beach trip. Once at the airport we were about 11 hours early, so we had plenty of time to explore (or in my case write the blog). Ethan was thrilled to learn there was no option to get an earlier flight. For me it would’ve cost $650 extra + I’d be downgraded from comfort+ to main cabin. All to leave at 2pm instead of 7pm. What a trade that is. lol [Ethan’s Note: I haven’t been to a LOT of airports, but I’ve been to a few. MIA is the WORST airport I have ever been in. Who designs an airport without connected gates where you have to exit and go through domestic security again? Why did they only have charging stations you had to stand at? Why were the food options so limited and miserable for the most part? I could go on.]
At around 12pm Ethan and I met for lunch at a TGI Fridays in concourse D. Afterwards he attempted to be on standby for a flight leaving earlier, but was devastated to hear the flight was full. After that I headed back to concourse H to wait a few more hours for my flight. The way the Miami airport works is that it’s massive, but the terminals aren’t connected so to change terminals you need to exit / re-enter security somewhere else. Kind of a hassle.
Eventually my plane boarded at 6:30pm and I was on my way home! It was nice to sit in Delta’s comfort plus compared to the free for all on Southwest. My bag does in fact fit into the overhead bin. (Philip got me a new bag for Christmas and it’s lovely, but just a smidge larger than my old one.) The flight home was not as painful as the day 0 flights, so that was great. Once I landed in Boston the trip was complete. Another one for the books!
Final Thoughts
While it was soul crushing to spend an extra day at sea instead of snorkeling, I thought the trip was awesome. It was super cool to go on another adventure with Ethan. I got to try a bunch of things that I’ve never done before. Such as planning a cruise without my family, holding a shark, trying sake, and getting to sit on a sunny island beach with a margarita. Despite all the alcohol I never had too much.
[Ethan’s Final Thoughts: Ocean cruising was a new experience for sure. I’d also never been to the Caribbean, so that was fun. While it was an enjoyable experience and having everything pre-paid for essentially was nice, everything felt a little inauthentic. I’ve felt like a tourist when traveling, but this was another level it felt like. I’d do it again, but I’d focus more on what opportunities the ship offered in addition to the shore excursions. Norwegian did a great job, and I liked the lack of kids on the ship. Overall, 7/10 experience, would do again!]
Thank you all for reading this! It was a pleasure to share my adventures once again.
Trip Stats
- Cruise nights: 3
- Favorite thing: shark encounter!
- Best drink: margarita on Blue Lagoon Island in the Bahamas
- Room review: no balcony was surprisingly not too bad ($780 per person)
- Ship name: Norwegian Jade
- Trips with Ethan as of now: 5
- Record uber trip: 4 hours to go 20 miles (not sure on the exact numbers)
- Hotel score: 7/10
- Drinks: 14 [Ethan’s Drinks: 22]